EF-2 tornado cuts 4-mile path through Waco area

WACO–Gina Williams was sitting with her 94-year-old mother, Christine Landers, on Saturday night as a line of storms moved across northwest Alabama.

Williams said she could hear a tornado siren way off in the distance around 11:20 p.m. Soon thereafter she said her weather app went off.

“I could hear the hail outside followed by a roar and then the house shook,” she said. “That may have been when the trees were falling outside.”

Several trees in front of Landers’ home fell, but luckily none fell on the house, Williams said.

“She doesn’t even have a leak,” Williams said of the home’s roof. “She’s just without power, so she can’t watch TV right now. We hear it may be out for a day or so.”

Several trees were twisted in the Franklin County community east of Russellville.

And several people were in outside Sunday afternoon picking up limbs and clearing debris from their front yards.

Franklin County Sheriff Shannon Oliver said Sunday that members of the National Weather Service from the Huntsville office had been to the community to survey the damage.

By late Sunday afternoon, the weather service indicated an EF-2 tornado had touched down in the community with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph. A tornado with maximum winds ranging between 111 mph and 135 mph is categorized as an EF-2, according to the Enhanced Fujita Scale.

The path of the tornado was just shy of 4 miles and was 170 yards wide as it moved northeast near Littleville.

The tornado was the largest of two tornadoes confirmed by the NWS in northwest Alabama. An EF-1 tornado hit downtown Tuscumbia in Colbert County.

One person was injured from debris from the tornado, Oliver said.

Franklin County 911 stated it received reports of “several trees and power lines down” in the areas of Vina, Waco and Tharptown.

The agency reported several fire departments, deputies and road crews were helping clear roadways.

Franklin County EMA Director Mary Hallman Glass said reports of damage were received for areas near Highways 24 and 75.

María Camp contributed to this report.